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Opera House Cinema Series to screen ‘Hacksaw Ridge’

Submitted Photo The Fredonia Opera House will screen “Hacksaw Ridge” on Saturday, Jan. 21 and Tuesday, Jan. 24.

The next feature film in the Opera House Cinema Series is the true WWII story “Hacksaw Ridge.” It will be screened on Saturday, Jan. 21, and Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 7:30 p.m.

Nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and winner of the Critic’s Choice Award for Best Action Picture, “Hacksaw Ridge” is the extraordinary story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) who, in Okinawa during the bloodiest battle of WWII, saved 75 men without firing or carrying a gun.  He was the only American soldier to fight on the front lines without a weapon, as he believed that while the war was justified, killing was nevertheless wrong.

As an Army medic, Doss single-handedly evacuated the wounded from behind enemy lines while tending to soldiers, and was himself wounded by a grenade and hit by snipers.  Doss was the first conscientious objector awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Patrons are warned that “Hacksaw Ridge” contains some of the “most violently accurate depictions of war and battle” of any film.

Rafer GuzmanLoving celebrates the real-life courage and commitment of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry — and their love story has become an inspiration to couples ever since.CalcRafer GuzmanRafer, in Newsday, calls the film “an unusual pro-peace war film … solidly entertaining and impressively faithful to the facts.”  Ann Hornaday, in the Washington Post, calls it “a rousing piece of entertainment that also happens to be an affecting portrait of spiritual faith and simple human decency.”  Rex Reed, in the New York Observer, calls it “violent, harrowing, heartbreaking and unforgettable.”  Katie Walsh, in the Tribune News Service, says “Doss is asked time and time again if he’s ‘crazy.’ But the film flips that notion on its head. Is it crazy to save lives or to take them? In ‘Hacksaw Ridge,’ it’s clearly war that’s craziest of all.”  Rated R for intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence including grisly bloody images, “Hacksaw Ridge” runs two hours, 19 minutes.

The Opera House Cinema Series is sponsored by Lake Shore Savings Bank.  Tickets are available at the door for $7 (adults), $6.50 (seniors & Opera House members) and $5 (students) the night of each screening.   A book of 10 movie passes is available for $60 at the door or online at www.fredopera.org.  For more information, call the Opera House Box Office at 679-1891.

The Opera House is equipped with individualized closed captioning headsets for the deaf as well as with assistive listening headsets for the hearing-impaired.  Simply request one from any usher or Opera House staff member.  Headset funding provided by Robert & Marilyn Maytum, the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, the Dunkirk-Fredonia Lions Club, and by a grant from Theatre Development Fund’s TAP Plus program in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts.

The 1891 Fredonia Opera House is a member-supported not-for-profit performing arts center located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia.  For a complete schedule of events, visit www.fredopera.org.

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